Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect the correct hometown for Dr. Chris Bayley King, and the fact that he is also survived by a step-daughter.

At a small memorial that has materialized at the entrance to Boulder's Bramble & Hare restaurant, a single note was on display Wednesday directed to Dr. Christopher Bayley King, who was shot to death outside the establishment just after midnight on Memorial Day.

"If we sparkle, he may land tonight," it read, quoting David Bowie's "Starman." Beneath it, someone had written, "Chris, you were a pure delight."

That's also the way King, 49, was remembered Wednesday by Jennifer Draper, a classmate of King's at the prestigious Crystal Springs Upland School in Hillsborough, Calif., where they graduated in the class of 1986.

"He was incredibly brilliant, and very compassionate," said Draper, a one-time Denver resident now living in Troy, Mich. "Those are the words that come to mind." King was a native of Woodside, Calif.

Michael Bates, of Redwood City, Calif., was a close friend of King not only in high school but also at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where they roomed together senior year before graduating in 1990.

"Chris is probably the smartest person I ever met and he had the biggest heart," Bates said, his voice choked with emotion.

Draper said she and King lost contact sometime after their school years. But through Facebook, she said she had recently renewed contact with King.

"I don't know why he picked Boulder, but I know he loved the mountains," Draper said.

Draper and Bates both said King was divorced, and that his ex-wife and two children lived in the San Diego area. He is also survived by a step-daughter. Bates said the children in San Diego are a high school-aged boy and a girl, and that King "put his kids first, in his priorities."

Warnings on 'Kryptonite"

King's Facebook and LinkedIn page identified him as a physician and researcher specializing in diet and disease. He is listed as the founder of Dr. King's Clinic in California and also worked at SlimGenics.

King had a new girlfriend in the San Francisco area, and his interest in the woman was great enough that King had intended to settle there, Bates said. But landing the SlimGenics job in the Denver area triggered the change in plans, leading him to come to Boulder in January, where he had also lived on a previous occasion, according to Bates.

Another Colorado drawing card for King, Bates said, was the opportunity for him to work directly with Dr. Richard Johnson, the division head for the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Johnson could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

King was featured by Radio New Zealand in June 2016 for his work in a program at the Hastings Girls' High School in Hastings, New Zealand, working to reverse diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity and gout — all of which are exacerbated by fructose.

Louis Joseph Sebastian, the suspect in the shooting death of a man at the Bramble & Hare restaurant in Boulder early Monday, appears in Boulder District Court on Tuesday. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

A majority of that school's 830 students are Maori and Pasifika, according to Radio New Zealand, and are more genetically disposed to the negative effects of fructose in sugar than other ethnicities.

"I tell them Maori and Pacific Islanders were the supermen and superwomen of the Pacific," King is quoted as saying. "But when the Europeans brought sugar, it was their Kryptonite."

A YouTube video titled "Pacific Kryptonite" shows King, relaxed in bare feet and shorts, seated on a floor using children's colored building blocks to demonstrate how fructose can contribute to disease — and informing viewers that while whole fruit is great, fruit juice is more "toxic" than Coca-Cola.

A posting on King's Facebook page showed that he planned to return to New Zealand in June to do more work among aboriginal people. Draper said that King's efforts in that country last year prevented him from attending his high school's 30th reunion.

"We Skyped him in and passed him around the room," giving their classmate grief for missing the party, and saying, "You better be here for the next one," Draper said.

Investigators said the shooting occurred shortly after midnight Monday at the Bramble & Hare, a farm-to-table restaurant and bar at 1970 13th St., just off the Pearl Street Mall.

Police believe that Sebastian and King became embroiled in an argument inside the restaurant, then went outside, where shots were fired. They reentered the restaurant, police said, where additional rounds may have been discharged. A representative of Bramble & Hare has disputed that account, claiming there was no evidence the two argued before heading outside.

King was rushed to Boulder Community Health's Foothills Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Little has been made public about Sebastian. But a profile posted on couchsurfing.com, which acquaintances identify as belonging to Sebastian, identifies him as a web designer and developer from Pittsburgh whose ambitions were "to relocate to Boulder Co to step up my climbing game and enjoy a healthier quality of life."

With a stated philosophy of "go big or go home," Sebastian wrote in his profile, "I want to meet people that are intense and focused on what they love. Its (sic) better yet if they want to share that passion and teach it to others."

Draper said she had heard nothing about the circumstances that led up to King's death, and was having difficulty processing the loss of her onetime classmate, calling it "insane" and "so surreal."

Bates remembers his friend for the great passion he brought not only to his research, but to life itself.

"He was larger than life most of the time," Bates said. "He was passionate about almost everything he did, and he just brought a different energy to a group when he joined.

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